Means or apparatus for cooking eggs.



g N0. 704,l40. Patented July 8, I902.

4 L. H. STOCKS.

MEANS 0B APPARATUS FOR COOKING EGGS.

[Application filed July 1, 1901.)

(No Model.)

NITED STATES PATENT OFFIcE.

LUCY HARRIET STOCKS, OF LEEDS, ENGLAND.

MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR COOKING EGGS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 704,140, dated July 8,1902'.

Application filed July 1,1901. Serial No. 66,735. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, LUCY HARRIET SrocKs,a subject of the King of GreatBritain and Ireland, residing at Leeds, in the county of York, England,(whose post-office address is Norfolk House, Chapel Allerton,Leeds,England,) have invented new and useful Improvements in Means orApparatus for Cooking Eggs, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in means or apparatus for cookingeggs-that is to say, by the process known as poaching.

The object of this invention is to provide simple and ready means forpoaching eggs, hereinafter termed the egg-poacher, which readily enablesa person to easily dish or serve them in, say, a circular or otherdesired form without there being so great a danger of breaking the yolkor formation, as at present. I attain this object by apparatusillustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is asectional elevation of the eggpoacher on line as m, Fig. 2; Fig. 2, aplan looking at the top; Fig. 3, a front elevation; Fig. i, an endelevation; Fig. 5, a front elevation of the egg-poacher shown partiallyopen; Fig. 6, a part plan of the egg-poacher with a triangular loopattached thereto; Fig. 7, a part plan of the egg-poa'cher with aprojection formed thereon; Fig. 8, a part sectional elevation of a meansof attaching a handle for lifting and carrying purposes; Fig. 9, a frontelevation of egg-poacher, showing another means of attaching said handlethereto; Fig. 10, a plan of the blank out of which one part of theegg-poacher is formed; Fig. 11, a sectional elevation showing means forusing two egg-poachers at a time.

a is the body or main portion, hereinafter termed the body of theegg-poacher, which is made in any desired size and in section isconcavo-convex in shape as well as in outline -such as, for example,say, circular at the top--as shown at Fig. 2, and dished or curved toform a concavo-convex shape or semisphere, or nearly so, between itsupper edge and base, as shown at Figs. 1, 3, and 4. The body a is madeof thin metal, either plain or enameled--such as, say, tin or thin sheetiron or steel-which may be first cutoutin a blank shaped somewhat asshown at Fig. 10 and afterward stamped or otherwise formed to thedesired concavo-convex shape. The body a is made in two portions, whichare perforated at b and hinged or jointed together by the pin or pivotc'that is, at a suitable point above the top or upper surface h-in orderthat the said two portions may open outward in opposite directions, asshown at Fig. 5, from their central line (1 of division for allowing thepoached egg to be removed from the poacher and deposited where required.The line 61 of division may be perfectly straight or plain in full linesat Figs. 1, 3, and 5, or it may be, say, of an irregular formation, asshown in dotted lines at 6-, Fig. 3, or curved, or wavy, or corrugated,as shown in dotted lines at f, Fig. 1, or serrated, as shown in dottedlines at r, Fig. 5; but in whatever manner it is formed it must be soarranged that edges of the two portions of the body a that come togetherwill fit one into or abut against each other without leaving an openingthrough which any portion of the egg may escape. The upper edge h ofeach of the said portions forming the body av is provided with aprojection arranged at, say, a right or other con venient angle to itsmain or body part to form a handle or ledge, hereinafter termed a handler for opening purposes.

In some cases the handle *5 is formed, as shown at Fig. 2-in thedrawings, by soldering or otherwise rigidly fixing a circular-shapedloop to the upper surface, or the said triangular-shaped wire loop(shown in full at j, Fig. 6) or a circular loop 75 (shown in dottedlines at Fig. 6) may be jointed thereto by bending a portion Z of theupper surface h over the said loop, so as to inclose a portion of thesame, or the said handle may be formed out of the same piece of metal orblank as the body, as shown at m, Fig. 7. In the latter case the handle011 would be bent at or about a right angle at the same time that thebody a is being dished or curved to the required shape.

By arranging the pivot 0 above the upper surface it and making thehandles 71 to project outward in a horizontal direction the twosemispherical portions of the body a will by their own weight andgravity be automatically made to abut and retained in a closed positionat their line of division during the cooking or poaching operationwithout the employment of any fastening device-such as, say, a catch,bolt, or pin or the like.

The egg-poacher is also provided with a handle 'n for inserting andholding it in as well as removing it from the vessel containing theboiling water employed for cooking purposes. The handle n is arranged tobe fixed to opposite points of the top of the eggpoacher, and its endsmay also be arranged to form pivots upon which the two said portions ofthe semisphere may turn, or separate pivots may be employed therefor.

In the drawings the handle n is shown made of wire, with a loop at eachend, which is made to pass through a loop 19, fixed to the body portiona, as shown at Fig. 4. In this case a joint or pivot pin 0 is made topass through the projections g, which form part of the body a, or theloops may be dispensed with and the pivot-pin c prolonged for the loops0 to pass over, as shown in dotted lines at z, Fig. 4, or, as at Fig. 8,both the jointpin or pivot c and loops 1) maybe dispensed with and theends of the handle it may be made to pass through the projections q andthen riveted or bent over to form a hook, as shown at 7', therebyforming both the jointpin or pivot c and attachment for the handle n, orthe handle it may be formed, as at Fig. 9, of a strip of metal, with theedges 5 turned over onto the inner side. The projection in this case ismade longer than the projection q, and the former is jointed to thelatter by a pin 0, as at Fig. 1. The handle in this case is attached tothe longer projection 25 in a similar manner, as described at Fig. 8.The normal position of the handle or is vertical, as shown.

When it is desired to use more than one egg-poacher at a time, then ametal bridgepiece to, Fig. 11, may be arranged to clip or rest upon theupper edge of a saucepan or other receptacle containing boiling water.The bridge it has attached to it any desired number of pendent fixed oradjustable hooks 20 (two fixed hooks are shown in the drawings; but thenumber may be varied as circumstances require) for suspending andholding the egg-poachers in the boiling water-say between the upper rowof perforations b and the edge h-that is, up to or about the line y y,Figs. 1 and 3. The blank out of which the body a is formed having beencut to the desired shape-say as shown at Fig. 10-and dished or curvedby, say, stamping to the shape shown at Fig. 1, the perforations b beingmade either prior or subsequent to the curving or shaping operation, thetwo portions of the body a. are then jointed together, as previouslydescribed, and the handle it attached thereto.

To cook or poach an egg, I proceed as follows: The two portions of thebody a are closed together, as shown at Figs. 1 and 3, and are keptclosed and made to abut at their line of division by their own weight,as previously described, the inside of the egg poacher preferably,though not necessarily, being lined or covered with butter or otherfatty material. The egg-poacher is then held or supported, say, byresting on its base, for receiving the white and yolk of the egg. Afterits shell has been cracked and severed in the usual manner the white andthe yolk are placed in the recessed or concave portion of thesemispherical body. The egg-poacher is then raised by the handle a, carebeing taken to keep edges of each portion a that abut at thedivision-line together, when it is placed and held until the cooking orpoaching operation is completed, say, by the cook or by the bridge u andhooks w in boiling water contained in, say, a saucepan, up to or aboutthe line y 3 care being taken not to allow the boiling water to passover the edge 7i into the egg-poacher and onto the egg. Theperforations 1) permit of the boiling water coming in contact with theegg during the setting and cooking of the same, as well as permitting ofany water to drain away on completion of the cooking operation. When thecooking and poaching operation is completed, the egg-poacher is raisedby the handle 71 from, say, the saucepan. The poached or cooked egg canthen be deposited upon, say, a piece of toasted bread or other food orinto a receptacle by opening the two portions a outward, as shown atFig. 5, by placing a finger on the under side of each of the han dles'1; and drawing them toward the handle n, thereby causing the portions ato turn on.

their joint or pivot pin 0. On opening the egg poacher as described thecooked or poached egg will at once pass through the opening or aperturethus formed without there being so great a danger of breaking orinjuring the yolk or its formation as at present.

Having now described the nature of this invention and how it may becarried into practice, what I claim, and desire to secure byLettersPatent, is

1. In an egg-poacher the combination of a seniispherical and perforatedbody divided into two portions jointed together at a point above theupper edge, a horizontally-projecting handle attached to the upper edgeof each portion of the semispherical body for opening purposes, and ahandle attached to the portions of the semispherical body above theupper edge for carrying purposes substantially as set forth.

2. In an egg-poacher, the combination of a perforated semispherical bodyformed in two portions out of a blank stamped to a concavoconvex shapeprovided with an irregular division-line at the points where the twoportions meet and fit into each other, projections on the saidsemispherical body portion by which the said two portions are jointedtogether above their upper edge, a pivot-pin on which the said two partsturn, and horizontally-projecting loop-handles on the semispherical bodyportion for opening purposes, for opening purposes, and a handle forcaras set forth. rying purposes attached to the longer pro- 3. In anegg-poacher, the combination of a jections, substantially as set forth.perforated body formed in two portions, each In testimony whereof I havesigned my 5 portion having projections by which the body name to thisspecification in the presence of I 5 portions are jointed together abovetheir uptwo subscribing witnesses.

per edge, said projections being of difierent I LUCY HARRIET STOCKS.lengths, a pivot-pin for jointing the two body Witnesses:

portions together, handles attached as de- VVILLIAM SADLER, IO scribedto upper edge of said body portions 1 ANNIE PARK.

